Walk-in cold rooms, such as walk-in coolers, freezers, or other refrigerated environments, are common in various industries, including supermarkets and grocery stores, commercial kitchens, and other food service facilities. They typically nave one or more access doors for entry and exit from the environment. Since these environments are often used to store valuable contents, such as expensive products and/or large quantities of products, it is typically desirable that the access door(s) can be locked to control and/or restrict access to such contents. For example, to control access, the availability of a keyed locking option may be desirable so that keys can be provided to personnel who are authorized to access the cold-room environment. As another example, to restrict access during certain times, the availability of an alternate or additional locking option may be desirable so that even authorized personnel cannot access the cold-room environment. There may also be other reasons to control and/or restrict access to walk-in cold rooms such as safety or maintenance.
A problem associated with the locking of a cold-room door is the possibility that a person may become locked within the cold-room. To resolve this potential problem lock strikes have been designed to be mounted to the wall by a fastener extending through the cold-room wall having a threaded rod threaded into the strike and a knob accessible to one on the inside of the cold-room. The unthreading of the fastener from the strike causes the strike to fall off the wall and be disengaged from the locking mechanism. A problem with this type of device is that if one overly tightens the fastener it may become difficult for the person trapped within the cold-room to turn and release it from the strike. Also, a person unfamiliar with the product may not realize that turning the internal knob releases the strike and allows egress from the cold-room. Lastly, this type of fastener does not allow for variations in the thickness of the cold-room wall.
Accordingly, it is seen that a need exists for a lockable strike for walk-in cold rooms that is strong yet allows easy release from the wall and adjustability for varying wall thicknesses. It is to the provision of such therefore that exemplary embodiments of the present invention are primarily directed.